Burner for baseboard gas heater



Jan. 23, 1968 R. R. HODGES BURNER FOR BASEBOARD GAS HEATER 2 Sheets-Sheet l wwf/waz:

Original Filed Sept. 30, 1963 '2 Sheets-'Sheet 2 Jan. 23, 1968 R. R. HODGES BURNER FOR BASEBOARD GAS HEATER Original Fil-ed Sept. 50 1963 vw) MQ M. x* "\\`l y i. .11. Q l 11 .i d* r l |W4.. lM/ l :Ix i... t y M, WIT Q/ U Q ,f I I E; 1 f .f rwl EVV m@ fI I I. I I I I` I I` I I I I I I L I I I I I I Il Al 'n' United States Patent O 3,365,135 BURNER FR BASEBOARD GAS HEATER Ralph R. Hodges, Belleville, lll., assigner to Empire Stove Company, Belleville, lll., a corporation of Illinois Original application Sept. 30, 1963, Ser. No. 312,474, now Patent No. 3,234,930. Divided and this application Feb. 9, 1966, Ser. No. 526,170

1 Claim. (Cl. 239-398) The present invention relates to baseboard heaters and specically pertains to a burner for gas-red sealed baseboard heaters. The present application is a division of my prior co-pending application Ser. No. 312,474 filed Sept. 30, 1963 -which will issue as U.S. Patent No. 3,234,930,

It has long been desired in the gas burning heater industry to provide la gas-tired baseboard heater, but heretofore such heaters have not been commercially available, primarily due to the diiculty of maintaining the required combustion within the heater. In a baseboard heater, the combustion chamber is extremely long relative to its height; Whereas in a conventional Wall heater the combustion chamber is relatively narrow as compared to its height. Normal gas 4burners have not been found satisfactory in a baseboard heater, and it lhas been difficult to maintain the burner ignited in gas-lired baseboard heaters. This defect has limited their commercial availability and usefulness.

Another problem connected with the combustion is the desirability that present-day heaters be of the sea-led type wherein the combustion is maintained using only outside air and no room air is burned. This eliminates the possibility that products of combustion can contaminate the room air. Normally, however, `outside air is available only through the Wall venting so that a single source of outside air must supply a long combustion chamber for efficient heating operation. This complicates the aforementioned combustion problem.

Therefore, one of the present objects of the present invention is to provide a burner for a gas-tired baseboard heater which is eicient and reliable in operation and which is simple and easy to construct and install.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a gas-fired baseboard heater having a long burner positioned in the bottom of an irregularly shaped, long, low combustion chamber with secondary air for combustion being provided by a plurality of spaced ducts leading to the burner chamber along the length of the burner.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a gas-fired baseboard heater having concentric inlet and outlet ducts with the fresh air for combustion being passed from the inlet duct down behind the combustion chamber to insulate the same from the adjacent room Wall yvvit-h the air being admitted to the combustion chamber in a plurality of locations along the lengt-h of the burner.

Another object is to provide a baseboard heater having a removable front wall with a sealed combustion cha-mber having a removable door to provide access to the burner area.

Another principal object of the present invention is to provide a gas-tired baseboard heater having a combustion chamber which is long relative to its height and having `a burner `substantially the full inside length of the cornbustion chamber and having an outer room air heating chamber surrounding the combustion chamber for the purpose of distributing the total heat over a wide are-a and avoiding concentrated hot spots.

Another object is to provide, in a gas-tired baseboard heater, a long burner with continuous ports running the full length of the top and slightly down each end With embossed spacer connections located sufficiently below the burner top surface to allow a continuous flame along the entire burner length and having a slot cross section an'd mixer tube so designed and proportioned so that the hea-ter will `operate ecient-ly and ignite quickly and quietly When used with any commercially available gas Without customary prim'ary adjustment means.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter.

The present invention comprises a burner for a gasiired baseboard heater having an irregularly shaped combustion chamber, and spaced combustion air inlet passages to convey outside air to the burner area, said burner being long and having spaced continuous slots along the top edge and embossed spacer connections below the top edge to provide a continuous llame.

In the drawings wherein like numbers refer to like parts wherever they occur:

FIG. 1 is la front elevational view of a ing the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the structure shown in FIG. 1,

YFIG. 3 is a broken sectional view of the burner removed from the heater.

PIG. 4 is a sectional View taken along line 4 4 of PlIG. 3, and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 3.

The present invention is embodied in a burner 9 (FIG. 3) which is mounted in a gas-tired baseboard heater 10 which is positioned on the floor 111 of a room or enclosed space adjacent to an outside room wall. The heater 10 comprises a combustion chamber 13 mounted in a louvered casing 14 which denes `a room air heating chamber. The combustion chamber13 is sealed from contact with room air and is provided with an outlet duct 16 through which the products of combustion are exhausted to the atmosphere through the room Wall. An inlet duct is concentric with the outlet duct 16 and carries fresh air for combustion through the room wall to a fresh air passage positioned at the rear of the heater 10, and which, in turn, conveys the air to the bottom of the combustion chamber 13.

The combustion chamber 13 is mounted Within the air heating chamber .15 and is sealed throughout, so that the products of combustion do not contaminate the room air. The room air passes through the front wall louvers over and around the combustion chamber 13 (Where it is heated) and is emitted through the top wall louvers and at the top of the front Wall.

The combustion chamber 13 is provided with the burner 9 positioned in the lowermost portion thereof by means of burner brackets positioned adjacent to the ends of the chamber 13. The combustion chamber 13 is of unique shape and design to support combustion throughout the length of the burner 30. The combustion chamber 13 comprises a lowermost burner area 33, an intermediate portion 34 and an upper portion 35. The intermediate portion 34 tapers from its juncture with the top of the burner area 33 toward its top, and decreases in height from its ends toward the center as seen in FIG. 2. The intermediate portion 34 is separated from the upper portion 35 by a reduced area which is dened by a series of engaged embossed portions 37 which may be spotwelded together. The engaged sections 37 define a series of spaced slots 38 through which the products of combustion must pass in going from the intermediate section 34 to the upper section 3S of the combustion charnber 13. The details of the combustion chamber construction are fully shown in application Ser. No. 312,474.

Typical dimensions of the combustion chamber 13 are: height about 10 inches, length over 40 inches, and width Iabout 2 inches.

The burner 30 comprises a substantially circular body heater embody- 54 over @A of its cross sectional area with upright side walls 55' and 56 along one edge. The extensions of the side Walls 55 and 56 extend above the top of the burner body 54 with a separate member 57 being positioned therebetween. Inwardly projecting embossed spots 58 space the side walls 55 and 56 from the separator 57 and dene a plurality of longitudinally and laterally spaced sets of slots 59 along the length of the burner 30. Typical dimensions of a burner 30 are: 40 inch length, inch inside diameter of the base S4, approximately 11/16 inch height of extensions 55 and 56 and 0.04 inch wide slots 59. The uppermost part of embossed spots 58 is 1A inch below the top surface of side walls 55 and 56 along the entire length of the burner. This provides continuous ports from one end to the other and including the ends.

The pilot is connected to the burner 30 in a conventional manner, and a temperature control and on-off switch is connected to a thermostat which controls the gas supply to an orice 61. A burner extension 62 is spaced at 63 from the orifice 61 so that primary air for combustion is mixed with the gaseous fuel from the orifice 61. The ilow of the products of combustion is indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2.

Using the foregoing described construction, no adjustment of the space 63 between the end of the burner extension 62 and the fuel orifice 61 is necessary in changing from natural gas to propane or butene mixtures. Normally, some provision for varying the fuel-primary air mixture is necessary.

The secondary air for combustion is received from outside the house through an inlet duct and passes through an air passage down behind the air heating chamber and is communicated with the combustion chamber 13 at a plurality of locations along the length of the burner 30. Specifically, ope-ning 68 communicates primary air for combustion to the opening 63 between the burner extension 62 and the orice 61. The end of the burner extension 62 is housed in a housing set off from the main combustion chamber and the opening 68 communicates with this housing. Openings 69 are positioned at the ends and the center of the combustion chamber 13 and admit secondary air for combustion to the bottom of the burner chamber 33. The spaced openings 69 are necessary to insure that combustion is supported throughout the length of the burner 30. If sufficient air is not admitted to all of the burner area, the burner 30 tends to draw the products of combustion back into the burner area 33 and snuff out the flame. Closure plates 70 connect the outwardly formed combustion chamber i supports 66 with inwardly formed connecting flanges 71 to completely seal the air passage from the room air heating chamber.

This invention is intended to cover all changes and modilications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An elongated sheet metal burner for gaseous fuels comprising (a) a substantially cylindrical tubular body having a tangential longitudinal opening in the top of the body,

(b) a mixer tube connected to the body for inlet of a combustible fuel mixture,

(c) a tangential outlet extending along the length of the body, said outlet comprising spaced upright walls having free upper edges and connected at their lower edges to the body along the length of said opening,

(d) a flat spacer member positioned between and spaced from said walls and of substantially the same size,

(e) inwardly pressed opposed spots formed in the walls adjacent to the tubular body and engaging the spacer member so as to locate and position the spacer member equidistant from the Walls, the spots being spaced along the length of the walls so as to permit passage of a combustible mixture from the body to the top edges of the Walls, the spots also being suiciently below the top edges of the walls to define unobstructed continuous side-by-side ports along the length of the burner at the top edges of the walls.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 569,984 l0/l896r Blanchard Z39-553.5

651,162 6/l900 Dietrich Z39-553.3 2,255,636 9/1941 Wittmann Z39-566 2,541,428 2/1951 Leo et al. 239--552 2,541,7l0 2/195l Miller 239-552 2,828,532 4/1958 Taylor l58-ll6 3,177,794 4/ 1965 Laing 239-5905 EVERETT W. KIRBY, Primary Examiner.

ROBERTr B. REEVES, Examiner.

R. S. STROBEL, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN ELONGATED SHEET METAL BURNER FOR GASEOUS FUELS COMPRISING (A) A SUBSTANTIALLY CYLINDRICAL TUBULAR BODY HAVING A TANGENTIAL LONGITUDINAL OPENING IN THE TOP OF THE BODY, (B) A MIXER TUBE CONNECTED TO THE BODY FOR INLET OF A COMBUSTIBLE FUEL MIXTURE, (C) A TANGENTIAL OUTLET EXTENDING ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE BODY, SAID OUTLET COMPRISING SPACED UPRIGHT WALLS HAVING FREE UPPER EDGES AND CONNECTED AT THEIR LOWER EDGES TO THE BODY ALONG THE LENGTH OF SAID OPENING, (D) A FLAT SPACER MEMBER POSITIONED BETWEEN AND SPACED FROM SAID WALLS AND OF SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME SIZE, (E) INWARDLY PRESSED OPPOSED SPOTS FORMED IN THE WALLS ADJACENT TO THE TUBULAR BODY AND ENGAGING THE SPACER MEMBER SO AS TO LOCATE AND POSITION THE SPACER MEMBER EQUIDISTANT FROM THE WALLS, THE SPOTS BEING SPACED ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE WALLS SO AS TO PERMIT PASSAGE OF A COMBUSTIBLE MIXTURE FROM THE BODY TO THE TOP EDGES OF THE WALLS, THE SPOTS ALSO BEING SUFFICIENTLY BELOW THE TOP EDGES OF THE WALLS TO DEFINE UNOBSTRUCTED CONTINUOUS SIDE-BY-SIDE PORTS ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE BURNER AT THE TOP EDGES OF THE WALLS. 